About 22% of the price Ghanaians pay per kilogramme for Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) is taxes, the LPG Marketers Association has revealed.
According to its Vice President, Gabriel Kumi, this is preventing many Ghanaian consumers from consuming LPG.
“I’m sure you have been following the LPG Marketing Companies Association activities. For the past seven years consistently and persistently we have called on the government to remove the taxes on LPG because we believe it doesn’t make any sense to put taxes on LPG”, he stated on Upfront on Joy News.
This is a product countries like Côte d’Ivoire are subsidising to the tune of 20% to 25%. And in fact, when I spoke to a colleague a few weeks ago he couldn’t believe LPG is expensive in Ghana. He said their association has written to their government to even increase the subsidies on LPG, while Ghana’s LPG currently is one of the highest in the world”, he added.
To him, the government has failed to live by its promises, saying “In 2019 -2020, the government set an objective to increase consumption of LPG from 25% penetration level to 50% by the year 2030 but so far it has failed”.
“We applauded the government and said look this is a laudable objective to set but you can’t eat your cake and have it. LPG is a product with a very high sensitivity. It’s highly price sensitive such that any pesewa put on the price of the product goes a long way to reduce consumption”, Mr. Kumi mentioned.
“So, when that objective was set, that was when the call for us to take off the taxes on LPG really began because we called the government and said look yes you have set such an objective but it will be counterproductive if at the same time, you are putting taxes on the product which you want to increase its consumption”, he added.
He concluded that LPG is not a luxury product nor is it for the bourgeoisie, but for the ordinary Ghanaians.
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